The Waugh Room

Wednesday 19th January 2011 | 09:27

The Speaker speaks - on MP numbers, IPSA and bloggers

John Bercow's speech last night to the Institute for Government was a noteworthy event in more ways than one.

The Speaker made an impressive case that Parliamentary scrutiny has improved in recent years, and months, while accepting that there was still a long way to go.

It was the kind of wide-ranging, erudite discussion on the constitution that we failed to see enough of under Michael Martin and, dare I say it, Betty Boothroyd.

The Speaker wasn't afraid of controversy - or of treading gently on the Executive's toes.

He pointed out that he had dramatically increased the use of the Urgent Question to hold ministers to account. In the 12 months before he was Speaker, there were precisely 2 UQs. In the 12 months after, there were 22. He also highlighted the declining practical knowledge of Parliament among civil servants and criticised the large number of needless PQs submitted by MPs.

The Speaker submitted himself to scrutiny with a Q&A afterwards and perhaps his most controversial remarks were on the Government's plan to save money by slashing the number of MPs from 650 to 600.

Mr Bercow's friend and ally Charles Walker has made a strong point in recent months that to cut the number of MPs without cutting the number of ministers further risks tilting the balance of power away from Parliament towards the Executive.

Mr Speaker last night seemed to agree:

"It may well be that people [MPs] will have to work harder to scrutinise effectively if the balance between backbenchers and ministers is squeezed more in favour of ministers. Would that concern me? It would."

"The idea that this is a straight-forward case of saving money is not the case … My concern is that we should have a better quality of representation and of scrutiny. I'm not myself concerned with the issue of cutting the cost of politics."

He added that the issue was "highly sensitive" and accepted he needed to "tread carefully". Let's see if there's any Government push-back on what is clearly a big party political issue.

Given Labour grumbles about his Speakership, it was perhaps apt that Mr Bercow used his speech to make a nod to the problems with IPSA.

Referring to the Roman "scrutineers", he said:

"The original scrutineers were.. impoverished types who trawled through trash in the hope of being able to salvage something of value from it. In the age of IPSA and with the multiple burdens on their time, I suspect there are many backbench MPs with whom this might strike a chord."

Closer to home, the Speaker also made a nod in the direction of bloggers and the extra scrutiny they bring to Parliament, MPs and his own office:

"This may involve an element of uncomfortable humility for Members of Parliament but it is true all the same. The media, in particular, but also pressure groups, think tanks, other levels of devolved and local administration, independent institutions such as this one, collections of bloggers [my italics] and even the humble ordinary citizen are all part of what is a network of scrutiny."

All in all, not a bad night's work.

After his clash with Mark Pritchard last week, at PMQs today MPs may well be watching Mr Speaker as much as Ed Miliband and David Cameron.